Boys hoops: Linden advances to TOC final

TOMS RIVER - For the Linden High School boys basketball team, confidence was key Thursday night against St. Augustine in the Tournament of Champions semifinals.

The third-seeded Tigers (25-5) defeated the second-seeded Hermits 59-56 to advance to their first Tournament of Champions final since 2006. Linden will face top-seeded St. Anthony, which defeated No. 5 Teaneck in the other semifinal, 67-30.

The final is scheduled for 8 p.m. Monday at the Sun National Bank Center in Trenton.

"Our kids didn't have a shred of doubt heading into the basketball game that we can win it, they were the two seed, we've been ranked over them all year and we used that as motivation," Linden coach Phil Colicchio said. "We wanted to respect them because we respect everybody, but we're the better basketball team and we came out and we played that way."

Linden depended on its defense to get past St. Augustine (30-2), holding the Hermits to only 20 points in the paint and nine points in the third quarter. Colicchio credited Joey Krempa for guarding the Hermits' leading scorer Sa'eed Nelson and running the offense.

"One thing was a big, big factor was Joey Krempa played an unbelievable floor game today," Colicchio said. "Defensively he was all over Nelson, he scored points but he's a heck of a player, he's supposed to. He did an unbelievable job getting the ball to the right people in the right spots, not panicking, Joey was a typical throwback point guard tonight."

The Tigers took the lead in the first quarter and didn't look back, but St. Augustine didn't go quietly.

The Tigers took a 42-35 lead on a basket by Khalief Crawford with six minutes left in the game, but a three-point play from Walter Harvey brought the Hermits within 42-38 just six seconds later. Back-to-back 3-pointers by William Phelps and Tavon Jones pushed Linden's lead to 46-38 with 5:24 to go, but Austin Kennedy answered with a 3 to cut the lead to five, 46-41, with 5:14 remaining.

Two free throws from Justyn Mutts pulled the Hermits to within 46-43, but four-straight points put the Tigers back ahead 50-43 with 4:04 left. Both teams traded baskets, and with Linden up 54-47, Nelson scored five-straight points to bring the Hermits within striking distance, 54-52, with 1:51 left.

A basket from Lowe gave Linden a 56-52 lead, but St. Augustine kept it within two on a field goal from Mutts with 1:06 left. Linden then turned the ball over, but St. Augustine missed a 3 with about 25 seconds left, Jones got the rebound and was fouled. At the line, Jones hit both ends of a one-and-one with 21.5 seconds left to put the Tigers ahead 58-54.

"I think we did very well," Krempa said of Linden's offense. "We made easy passes, interior passing was amazing, Tafari and Will both played out of their minds, couldn't ask for better coached players tonight, in this game, it was amazing."

With 14.2 seconds left Harvey scored to again cut the lead to two, 58-56, and with 12.4 seconds to go Lowe hit a free throw for the 59-56 final.

"Coach Colicchio preaches defense and that's always our motto day in and day out, we drill in practice every single day and that's our mantra, defense and that's how we stopped Sa'eed," Krempa said. "Sa'eed's a fantastic player, how we stopped (Kennedy), stopped Mutts and that was the key to our game."

Lowe recorded a double-double for Linden, finishing with 17 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and two blocks. Phelps finished with 21 points, eight rebounds and three blocks.

For St. Augustine, Nelson scored 20 points and had five assists. Mutts scored 13 points, including his 1,000th career point. Harvey contributed 11 points and seven rebounds.

"We expected to really work very, very hard, crash rebounds and push. We work as a team, we play together at all times and we help each other out," Lowe said. "We're not selfish at all, today I had a good game, some days it's Tavon, other days it's Khalief, no one is selfish, that's important. It feels very, very good because all of us had to work together, it's not one person that got this W."

Staff Writer Lauren Knego: lknego@gannettnj.com